John McLure, the lead singer of indie band Reverend and the Makers has been named as the new chairman of Sheffield FC after he led a consortium alongside performing arts firm IAV Holdings Limited to buy a significant stake in the club, whose men’s side currently play in the ninth tier of English football.
They said they aimed to return the club to Sheffield from its current Derbyshire home, and have plans for a football academy, eSports hub, national football festival, clothing brand, visitor centre and TV show.
McClure said he had “always” had an interest in the club, “as a Sheffield native with a lot of us schooled in the idea that we invented football in this city”.
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Founded in 1857, Sheffield FC is widely considered to be the world’s first football club.
“There’s still a lot of people in the city who don’t know that. And nationally and globally, people are completely unaware,” McClure said.
McClure said he had originally tried to buy Sheffield FC in 2018, alongside his manager David Bianchi, co-founder of Various Artists Management.
“We were quoted a price that seemed silly to us at the time, so we walked away and thought that was that,” he said.
“Fast forward to now and we’ve managed to do a deal to get involved and to purchase a chunk of the club with a bunch of other people.”
Andrew Ford and Alexis Krachai join McClure and Bianchi on Sheffield FC’s new-look board alongside existing owner, Jeremy Levine, and his son Jack.
Ford is a local businessman and the son of former Sheffield Wednesday footballer David Ford, while Krachai is the managing director of Counter Context, a Sheffield-based communications and public affairs company.
The news comes less than two months after venture capital firm Yorkshire AI Labs claimed it had two bids to buy the club rejected.
The club’s men currently play in the ninth tier of English football after relegation last year, while the women’s side plays in the fourth-tier of the women’s pyramid.
McClure said he wanted to bring success for all teams at Sheffield FC, but he recognised “there’s a limit football-wise”, especially with the men.
“This is not Wrexham. I’m not Ryan Reynolds. Let’s get it clear, I’m in an indie band. I know my place in this world,” he said.
“I’ve taken a lot of advice from football people. I’m not a football person, and I won’t be involved in football stuff.
“There’s a limit for Sheffield FC. It’s a non-league club. This is not me talking now. This is Chris Wilder, Vill Powell and others.
“These are people who care about the club. They’re saying to me, it can’t ever compete with Wednesday or United. That’s not what it’s there to do.
“On the women’s side, I think there’s less of a ceiling. I think the women could be very successful, and we want to prioritise that, but it has to be done by engaging actual football people.”
Sheffield FC have played their games outside of their home city, in Dronfield in North East Derbyshire on the outskirts of Sheffield, since 2001.
The club has made several attempts to return to Sheffield over the past two decades, with the latest plans unveiled in November 2023 as a joint venture with Sheffield Eagles Rugby League Club.
McClure said they were looking at “a bunch of places” for a new stadium, with a move to the former Sheffield Transport Sports Club site at Meadowhead a possibility.
“The planning application is still live and we’re undertaking a review,” he said.
“We don’t want to take anything off the table. It’s about engaging constructively with the people in charge in this city, the council and the mayoral authority.
“I think everybody wants the club back in the city, but there’s only Sheffield that could invent football and build a B&Q car park on it.”
The inaugural meeting of Sheffield FC took place on 24 October 1857 at Parkfield House in the Sheffield suburb of Highfield. The club’s rules of play, which were decided upon at the club’s AGM on 21 October 1858, and published the following year, were referred to as the Sheffield Rules, and were the first detailed set of rules of football to be published by a football club (as opposed to a school or university) since, at the time, before the formation of the Football Association, many different rules of football existed in England, and none of them featured VAR.
Image: Sheffield FC
